Through the use of false truths, Sherman Alexie and Jhumpa Lahiri illustrate the point that things are not always as they seem, and how your reality can just be an illusion.
In both stories, Alexie and Lahiri have the fathers unable to grasp the fact that something is wrong with their marriage. In Alexie’s “Jimi Hendrix”, Victor’s father was almost always living in an illusion of the world. He was an alcoholic, and almost always came home drunk to his wife and child, Victor. He became alcoholic to hide from his problems he had in real life, such as his marriage. Now, instead of focusing on his marriage, he does other things such as drink and listens to music, living in a fictional world separate from reality. During a visit to the hospital
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to check on Victor’s dad after he crashed his motorcycle, once again escaping from reality, Victor tells his dad that he sometimes sounds “like you ain’t even real.”, to which his dad tells him, ‘What’s real?
I ain’t interested in what’s real. I’m interested in how things should be’ (Alexie 52). This is a very important quote because it proves to the reader that Victor’s dad is, in fact, living in a fantasy, and changing past memories to make them more enjoyable and happier. Also, this shows that Victor’s dad is well aware that he is living in a fantasy as he is only interested “in how things should be”. After fighting, it is shown how Victor’s dad recalls to Victor each time how beautiful his wife was, and each time she got even more beautiful, showing how he is completely disregarding the fights they get in daily and focusing on the memories of the past, where their marriage used to be better. Victor’s dad was not the only character in these two stories that fail to see the truth, Mr. Das from Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” also lives in his own fantasy. He really wants to have a whole, perfect family, while Mrs. Das cheated on him. With three kids’ Bobby, Tina, and Ronny, Mr. Das wants to show and prove to about everybody that his family is a very healthy and
happy one, just by taking a photograph. Mrs. Das also partly excluded herself from the family, refusing to get into every picture and telling him, ‘Pretend I’m there’ (Lahiri 24). Mr. Das wants a complete and perfect family so much, and you can tell by how many times he wants to take pictures to save a moment from the “perfect family” during the trip. The only times Mr. Das wasn’t on his camera trying to take photos, he was in his tour book trying to make this trip absolutely perfect for his kids and himself, while Mrs. Das pretty much stayed in the car the whole time with Mr. Kapasi.
In the fictional story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, describes the problems of a teenager living between two different cultures; one Native American, and the other white. Alexie uses figurative language elements to convince teenagers to be aware and support people living between two worlds in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. By using these literary elements, Sherman Alexie guides the audience to respond emotionally and act upon about the book’s message. Throughout the story, Alexie uses juxtaposition to show the differences between the two worlds the protagonist lives in.
This makes Victor to be a modern character who only think about himself. Victor did something only if it might help his future and get benefit from something he think it is good. Victor’s father had a savings account that is waiting to be collected, so Victor tried to get his father’s account and he prepared to go to Phoenix, Arizona where father died (Alexie, 21). Money symbolizes Victor’s selfishness and negative feelings. Victor does not think about others, but he only thinks about himself, and has negative thoughts while he lives his life. Victor represents the modern people because people from the present always think about themselves and does not care about the past, so money that victor’s father had was very important to Victor to live his life. Victor said to Thomas that he will pay the money back, but he does not want to give the money from his father’s account to Thomas. After they retrieved, Victor gave half of his father’s ashes to Thomas (Alexie, 30). Victor’s father’s ash symbolizes the friendship between Victor and Thomas because they both have memories with Victor’s father and they both want to toss his ashes into the water. They both wanted to do same thing, but their meanings are different. Victor thinks negative ways about toss his father’s ashes into water and described that letting things go after they stopped having any use (Alexie, 30).
What is reality? This is the question Philip K. Dick poses in his book, Time Out of Joint. Dick strategically uses literary devices such as narrative structure and symbolism in order to comment on one’s perception of what is real, and what is fiction. By making “time out of joint” and allowing a shift in moral power within his novel, Dick exposes the feelings of paranoia and insecurity that were experienced during the fifties, when Dick wrote this novel, but implies that there is hope that peace can still be attained.
All three writers explore self-deception using specific characters, none of whom have the same world-view as the other characters in their respective texts. The
After bringing life to something seemingly horrible, Victor Frankenstein reveals his personality of avoidance and arrogance. Instead of facing the creature he created, he runs away from the problem. His motivations for the experiment vary, but there is one clear one that he even admits. "The world," he says, "was to me a secret which I desired to divine" (Shelley 18). Victor tells us that he's curious, and more importantly that he's always been this way. Victor has been raised in a very loving family. His father and mother were kind parents who loved all of their children, and even adopted some children. Victor, however, grows up a little indulged and perhaps because of this, he is selfish. He is stubborn and unyielding about many things. For
The novel’s protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, emphasizes the importance of having an identity by exemplifying the dissatisfaction that accompanies contorted character-to-character relations. What makes his relationships particularly perverse however, is Victor himself as a person and family member. Often, male “participants in a moral conflict,” such as Victor, “may invoke ‘justice’ and insist on theoretical objectivity” to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, c...
With the different trips that Victor endures individually, it hints a sense of individuality as he seeks isolation from the world. He is also a very emotional man, who loves his family. As death of his family members occurs, he becomes emotionally unstable and seeks revenge against his creation. Ultimately trying to end the life he so vigorously wanted to create. This reflects both the passion and individualism theme from the Romantic
Everything starts to change once Victors ambitions become his life. He leaves to study at Ingolstadt, where his destiny begins to unfold. This is when Victor’s isolation begins. The search for the secrets of life consumes him for many years until he thinks he has found it. For months, he assembles what he needs for his creation to come alive.
The beginning of Frankenstein’s dream started as a young man, Victor’s interests lie in science, chemistry, and the balance and contrasts of life and death. Acting as a hypocrite, Victor explains how parents should be there to teach you to become great, “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as the fulfilled heir duties towards me” (Shelley 16). Victor says that his parents play a big role in how their child turns out; if the parents treat you bad then the child will come out bad but if he learns from good then he will come out to be a perfect little angel.
IN the beginning, Victor has a happy and almost carefree life. His home seems a place “…from which care and pain seemed for ever banished” (36). With a family such as his, no burdens seem to exist on his back. He has an entertaining mother, a father as a teacher, affection demanding brothers, and a gentle Elizabeth. He simply has no concerns. When Catherine (on her deathbed) joined the hands of Elizabeth and Victor saying, “…my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of you union” (37), it shows that Victor’s love life is also worry-free. Allowing him to further pursue his primary love, his studies. In stating, “I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge” (40), Victor shows that his first priority is his studies. Even in leaving all he has ever known (family and friends), he only wants learn. Before creating life, his world is dandy… with only the amount of knowledge he acquires being his worry.
Victor’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, is the victim of his own pride. An ego unchecked is a dangerous thing. But in truth, it really just shows Victor’s humanity. He is privileged, educated, talented, loved, adored, but he is not perfect. His flaw is his own ego and pride. Without doubt, this is the result of a childhood where he was overindulged. Overindulged to the extent he was given a little girl “Elizabeth” as a “present”, whom he considered from childhood “mine only” (Shelley 21). Little wonder the twenty year old Victor would think he could create, control and command life. But Victor as with any indulged child did not take the time to learn much from his parents about parenting and fath...
Chris McCandless was had an adventurous, young spirt that drove him into the wild. His kindred soul was a leading force into a journey designed to find himself. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless left society behind, trading a familiar scenery for the unknown. Mahatma Gandhi was a peaceful creature by habit, whose drive in life was to teach others how to live in peace. He wanted the world to learn to love, trying to have a positive impact on all who walked through his life. In many ways, Chris McCandless and Mahatma Gandhi are like, and in the same amount of ways are different.
Family is a recurrent theme throughout Frankenstein as the book opens with happy tales of Victor’s childhood with his family (Shelly 31). When speaking about his childhood, Victor recollects that “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than
Victor was reared in a household where he had the proper environment to learn many things. His father was well-educated and encouraged Victor to further his knowledge. There was, however, one subject that he did not encourage Victor on; it was natural philosophy. Victor’s father told him not to waste his time on such trash. This remark fueled Victor’s curiosity and he studied further into it. At the age of 13, Victor “entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained [his] undivided attention”. This foreshadowed Victor’s biggest mistake of his life that was to happen later in his life. When he entered the university, Victor started his studies in great detail and intensity. His greatest ambition was this: he wanted to recreate life out of something which life had already parted. He “described [himself] as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”.